Cadillac Resto - January's Improvements

Saturday, we took the day to deal with the Cadillac's trunk. It's the first project because it's a) inexpensive, b) completely self contained and c) what we'll be using to store ALL THE THINGS for a while.

It started out looking like this.

Thankfully, there was only a little bit of surface rust here and there which was easily taken care of with some wire brushes/drill attachments

While Earl was doing the heavy lifting, I organized all the little bits and pieces that would be going back in the trunk, that we didn't want to get lost. (not pictured, a gallon baggie full of miscellaneous screws and bolts.)

Look how nicely it all fits in this little tub.

After a quick coat of primer, some insulation and trunk panels, the first stage of the trunk-fix was done, and ready to store things like the tub of small parts, and the starter and all sorts of other things.

 

I'm not sure what we'll tackle next, but It's going to be wonderful to get this old lady back on the road.

Set in metal

I'm working on a project. Part of it is pictured above. It involves writing in silver sharpie on a black background. And as I work in it, I can't help but think of the inscription Sazed finds in chapter 12 of The Well of Ascension at the Conventical of Seran:

I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.

Of course, I'm not etching anything into a plate of steel, and it's certainly not as important as what went down in that book, but it definitely has me thinking. 

Working on the Caddy

This weekend we spent some time working on Earl's Cadillac.

Most of it was cleaning it out (since it's been sitting so long without its engine, things have gotten a little messy.)

The big thing was the trunk. This thing was full - and a lot of the stuff in it was from the owner before Earl. So we pulled it out, trashed more than half of it... and were left with what I call a 10-body trunk. I'm telling you, it's the size of a smart car.

 Among the other things in the trunk was this window.

 That's what it looks like when a bullet hole goes through a 1961 pane of glass.

And then we hopped inside just for fun :)

I’m a Scheduler

So, I was going to write a review of Tron Legacy for today’s post… but I’ve decided I want to see it once more before I do so. This means that you don’t get it until Friday. (Sorry Katie)


As I type this, my other screen is open to my Google Calander. This nifty little tool helps keep me sane. Because I like to schedule just about everything. Plans keep me from crawling out of my skin. So each week I have a timeline that looks like this:

The fact that I don’t have to break out my color coded pens myself is a life saver.

Pink items are what I’m writing about on my writing blog
Teal items are the posts I write here
Green are Birthdays
Dark Blue are US Holidays
Purple is my writing schedule
&
Red is everything else.

I’ve got most of January scheduled and pieces of February.

Welcome to my head.

Five points for a Friday:

1. Tomorrow is the end of the Hair-a-thon! That’s right, 3 years will be up and I’m chopping off approx 16 inches! Good riddance. (Pictures on Wordless Wednesday)

2. They’re sealing the concrete today (finally) which means that we can start back up on the yard again soon! Halleluja! All we’ve got left is laying new sprinklers, putting down sod, planting some lantana and laying more rock and we’re pretty much done.

3. It’s almost Halloween. That means that it’s time to get blood punch going. I’ll post the recipe for that (with pictures sometime next week) the best thing about it is that if you do it right… it starts to coagulate!

4. We watched Real Genius last night – a movie that I sadly had not seen before – and while I dislike Val Kilmer in almost everything he’s done (excluding True Romance and Tombstone), I happened to love his character in this. If you haven’t seen it, don’t deprive yourself any longer.

5. Apparently the farm girl in me has come back with a vengeance… I’ve stopped drinking any soda on the week days. Instead I stick to water and skim milk. However, between cereal and drinking it, I’ve gone through 2 gallons of milk since Sunday evening… I looked. Technically I’m only saving 10 calories per serving by drinking milk instead of 7-up… but at least I’m getting a log to calcium (?).

What Kind of Person am I?

I’m the kind of person who:

Puts bread in the toaster and forgets to push the leaver down

Checks the stove incessantly to make sure that I’ve turned off all the burners & broiler

Buys all of her household cleaning products in bulk and refills smaller bottles with them

Will drink a good cup of tea no matter how hot it is outside

Would love to have seasonal linens, but doesn’t have the money to burn

Prefers her mashed potatoes to have peas in them

Wonders if sometimes my dog really does understand me – even though I don’t speak Korean

Cannot stand the consistency of tomatoes in any form other than ketchup and even then I prefer HP sauce

Won’t buy new Chap Stick because she has a half full tube in her purse, but that tube gives her mouth a metallic taste, so she won’t use it

Enjoys toast plain or with strawberry jam, but nothing else

Can, and will, make an excel spreadsheet for anything

Feels a bit “better than you” when your dog is barking like a lunatic and mine ignores it.

Has a “thing” for old cars – how do you think this thing with Earl started?

Likes the idea of the Library, but can’t stand the idea of giving a book back – it’s why I don’t borrow books from friends either

Reads Wikipedia articles for fun

Hates grocery shopping, but loves Fresh & Easy

Writes compulsively - It’s not something I can stop

Likes lists… could you tell?

Will sing along with just about anything

Feel free to add to this if you like.

A Project Among Projects

Ok, so a friend’s birthday is Tomorrow. She’s very anti-birthday, but as I cannot forget things like that and I can’t ignore them. I gave her presents to her last night.


The main gift was a button hat I made her

And... a close up of the buttons...

It's nothing special (as far as the things that my friends can make *Cough* KatieBrittney *Cough*), but I love it – almost didn’t want to part with it – but I thought I’d share it with you!